Eye tracking Proves David Ogilvy’s Work (Still) Rocks
David Ogilvy, one of the most influential men in advertising died 10 years ago today. To commemorate this day we are proud to share some recent eye tracking research that prove his classic magazine advertisement layout (still) out performs contemporary designs.
We compared three ‘contemporary’ luxury car advertisements:
Those familiar with David Ogilvy’s work will immediately recognise that the Porsche advert is based on the classic David Ogilvy layout, like the Rolls Royce advert below:
The advertisements were placed into a magazine and shown to 60 male consumers from groups A, B and C1 aged between 30 and 55.
As you can see from the heatmaps all the salient features of the Porsche advert were noted, the car, key message, call to action and logo:
Porsche 911 with heat map showing eye tracking results
Digging into the detailed findings reveals that the Porsche advert significantly out-performed BMW and Mercedes in two key areas; noting the call to action and the logo.
Ad |
Noted call to action |
Noted brand |
| Porsche | 59% | 63% |
| Mercedes | 29% | 20% |
| BMW | 11% | 8% |
The findings are particularly impressive when you note that the Porsche advertisement is a single page and the Mercedes and BMW are double page spreads.
10 Responses to “Eye tracking Proves David Ogilvy’s Work (Still) Rocks”
[...] This post was Twitted by thelonioushawke [...]
I’m not a website consultant.
I’m not even a website developer.
But I’m calling BS on that porsche advertisement theory above.
Even i know that eye tracking analysis is only relevant when you are comparing people looking at one of two or more elements.
Basically in the porsche example above you only have two elements and white space….. what did you think people were going to be spending time looking at white space elements?
Time to go back to the drawing board before you start billing clients for that research.
Or am i missing something?
Would be happy to read a reply here that explains what you think i’m missing.
Cheers,
Dean
[...] This post was Twitted by bergbrandt [...]
@ dean collins
I think you missed the point. The fact that it is that simple IS what makes it work.
There is an image, a logo, a headline and body copy, but the layout makes it incredibly clear.
Or am I missing your argument?
I would have loved to have seen the heatmaps for the other two ads.
Rory Sutherland of Ogilvy makes some interesting points about this matter in his campaign blog this week: http://community.brandrepublic.com/blogs/rory_sutherlands_blog/default.aspx
[...] Ogilvy-inspired 1-page layout compared to 2 new-school double-trucks (aka 2-page spreads). You can see their blog post about their tests here, but I’ve also posted the Ogilvy-inspired heat map below. Check it [...]
[...] it a contradiction, then, that some eyetracking studies have shown that the Ogilvy Layout still works? Or would it simply be a mistake to conclude that offline and offline behavior are so different [...]
Looking at the actual heatmap for the porsche ad, I somehow doubt that 63% of the test subjects noted the brand. Based on the published numbers, the number of people taking note of the brand outpaced those who noted the call to action, a conclusion which a simple glance at the heatmap simply does not support.
I’m also skeptical about the fact that you did not release actual heatmaps for the other two ads used in this evaluation.
Thank you Lizzie, was unaware of Rory’s blog. Lot to learn from that man.
[...] Ogilvy-inspired 1-page layout compared to 2 new-school double-trucks (aka 2-page spreads). You can see their blog post about their tests here, but I’ve also posted the Ogilvy-inspired heat map below. Check it [...]
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